Racial IdentityGrowing up Chinese-American in QueensWe lived in a home with several generations under one roof – but outside everyone was from different backgrounds.
Baha'i CommunityMeeting Baha’is in actionYou can be pulled in many directions at college – my Baha’i friends showed me that faith and action go together.
Racial IdentityA family’s legacyMy eighth-grade teacher taught us as if the eighth grade was going to be our last year of education.
Civil Rights MovementCivil Rights was just lifeWhen I was 14, I got all dressed up to see the national NAACP leader speak at the YWCA.
Racial DiscriminationA society built for othersThe perceptions as that kids at my school wouldn’t amount to anything. But my peers had talents, abilities and intelligence that just weren’t being tapped by the system.
Racial IdentityHold on, just a little while longerI began to understand the oneness of religion after an old Czech woman told me she knew my grandmother in her heart.
Segregation in AmericaThe only way to get to heavenMy church and community were so segregated that I was in high school before realizing the world wasn't mostly black.
Racism in AmericaA lack of diversityThe national conversation on race wasn't on my radar when I was growing up.
Baha'i CommunityFinding hope in a hopeless timeGrowing up in a Baha’i family in the 1960s gave me hope – otherwise I wouldn’t believe there could be justice for people of color.
Racism in AmericaMoving to the SouthLiving in Tallahassee was one of my most difficult experiences – I had never experienced racism in that way.
Segregation in AmericaOne life with many namesGrowing up was not easy. There wasn’t anyone to nurture or love you or to make you feel special.
Racism in AmericaThe only black family in the neighborhoodWe were the outsiders. My mother was very concerned about how we were perceived.
Racism in AmericaDiscovering prejudice at a young ageJack Guillebeaux: They burned a cross within a block of our house when I was five or six years old.
Baha'i CommunityThe liberation of meeting the Baha’isJack Guillebeaux: The separation was entrenched and it was violent.
Interracial RelationshipsLife as an interracial couple in 1960s North CarolinaJack Guillebeaux: The worst thing that could happen is for Fafar or I to show fear.
Interracial RelationshipsChanging hearts through grocery shoppingFarzaneh Guillebeaux: We were looking for somewhere to live and I told landlords, I’m white, my husband is African-American, is that a problem? They would bang down the phone.
Segregation in AmericaGrowing up at a golden momentDesegregation of school districts was remarkably successfully – especially in the South.
Baha'i CommunityA brilliant stroke of parentingThe Baha’is in my town collaborated on Martin Luther King Day, they put on a Black History Month program. They were impressive.
Civil Rights MovementAn act of GodBlack people in the South never forgot the promise of Reconstruction. The Baha’i Faith arrived in the US just as it was being stamped out.
Racism in AmericaThe hard face of Jim CrowSegregation removed African-Americans from political power and kept them at the bottom of society.
Baha'i CommunityAbdu’l-Baha and Louis GregoryLouis Gregory, an African-American lawyer, tried to slip out the back door as a gathering of white guests arrived to see Abdu’l-Baha.
Racism in AmericaLosing a friend because of raceSegregation was evident across the South but it was a taboo subject.
Racial DiscriminationBuses, trains and unconscious biasesI sat by the African-American all the rest of the way to Washington D.C. because I didn't want to be put off the bus.
Racism in AmericaStaring racism in the faceThis tall, raw-boned mountaineer came in, sat on my couch, and just looked at me with his hand in his pocket.
Racism in AmericaPlease don’t leave a tipWe walked through the all-white restaurant as an integrated group. Silence fell, and I thought, what have I done?
Racism in AmericaA few white men on the other sideBarbara Talley: The second time I ran into the Ku Klux Klan was at a wedding outside a firehouse.
Racism in AmericaGrowing up during white flightAnthony Vance: Suddenly the managers of our housing project didn't care about it anymore.
Baha'i CommunityEmbracing diversity to overcome residential segregationAnthony Vance: 7 out of 10 white Americans have no close black friends, and 4 out of 10 African-Americans have no close white friends.
Baha'i Community BuildingCreating the world – or destroying itMichael Penn: Embodying spiritual qualities is part of the process of creating racial unity.
Racial DiscriminationIncarceration, race & class as a careerLabelling young people as irredeemable doesn’t help them to come out of prison and to contribute to society.
Racism in AmericaThe spiritual roots of racismHopelessness comes from not knowing how to change root problems – the Baha’i writings have the power to transform our hearts.
Baha'i CommunityA new Harlem generationI was horrified that so many Baha’is in Harlem were white – but then I saw they were reaching out to their neighborhoods of color.
Racial IdentityGrowing up with changeTavoria Kellam: I don’t identify in terms of race, but because this is America, I don’t have a choice.
Segregation in AmericaHow race and class intersectTavoria Kellam: Our Baha’i Center is in a neighborhood of a certain class, it doesn’t always attract people from uptown.
Racial DiscriminationA loving community surrounded by dangerGrowing up in Boston, you didn’t go into Irish or Italian neighbourhoods. You’d be taking your life into your hands.
Baha'i Faith HistoryMr Gregory’s legacyMy grandmother was a mother of her church – and she was very happy for me to investigate the Baha’i faith.
Baha'i CommunityA hotbed of political activityMy sense of how to be a person and a Baha’i moved me to leave a legacy behind.
Baha'i Community BuildingMaywood, near ChicagoFour young people recently took their lives in our community – these are spiritual problems that need spiritual solutions.
Segregation in AmericaTranscending social pressure to segregateKen Bowers: It was a time of extreme apartheid between the black and the white races.
Racism in AmericaSharing the burden of racismKen Bowers: America really is the story of struggle, horrific in many ways, and it needs to be acknowledged.
Segregation in AmericaGrowing up in "black world"Van Gilmer: It was scary to participate in the Civil Rights Movement because we had no clue what would happen. I was arrested many times.
Baha'i FaithFrom South Carolina to MichiganMy church was filled with Civil Rights protestors – one of them said I should explore the Baha’i faith.
Segregation in AmericaA domestic, a laundryman & a professorMy parents sent me to an integrated school but I was too mischievous – so I returned to an all-black community.
Baha'i CommunityLeaving homeIf you’ve been in a black church you know how dynamic it is – leaving it for an inter-racial community was traumatic.
Civil Rights MovementThree years of harassment and ostracismI was part of the vanguard of black students who integrated my high school – I rode in a police car to go to class.
Racism in AmericaThe Orangeburg massacreIt was so close – if I’d been standing on the front steps of my church at that moment I would’ve seen everything.
Baha'i CommunityGrowing up as a Civil Rights warriorThe Baha’i community taught racial unity and they also lived it – which was the goal of the Civil Rights movement.
Baha'i FaithApplying Baha’i ideas to scholarship & academiaWhite students felt guilty and didn’t know what to do, and students of color would feel extremely angry.
Racism in AmericaUrban redevelopment and raceMy field, urban planning, has destroyed many African-American communities. I saw it as my charge to address that.
Baha'i Community BuildingBuilding new communities in the inner citiesWhat’s facing us now in achieving race unity is that some people are privileged – many others are severely disadvantaged.
Segregation in AmericaEnding residential segregation is not gentrificationBaha’i institutions say we must live among people of different races – and to show them hospitality and love.
